Nightmare in New Mexico....Our Lovely Vacation

Okay, get a cup of coffee and get comfortable. This is going to take a while.

So, In May, we bought a used pickup, with towing a travel trailer in mind. A Ford F250 Diesel. Then about three weeks ago, we bought a 31 foot travel trailer. We decided to hit the road the week before school started. Not one of our better ideas, but it sounded good at the time.

Thursday morning we headed out to make the 9 1/2 hour drive to Coyote Creek New Mexico, about 60 miles North of Las Vegas, New Mexico. The drive was uneventful, and pretty fun (Obviously I wasn't driving.LOL). When we got there I got out to help guide Don into the parking spot for the trailer and Don got out, too, and we both just kinda gasped at the huge pool of transmission fluid on the ground. And there was a trail as far as we could see coming into the campground. There we were. A campground in the middle of nowhere, no cell service and darkness settling in. But, we were VERY grateful we made it to the campground and had the trailer hooked up with most of the comforts of home. But there was this huge black cloud hanging over our heads. I felt ill. The next morning, Don found a pay phone by the bath house and had talked to the camp host. Don called a tow truck. We have some tow insurance, so Don called the insurance company. Well, the tow truck couldn't find us. They called the insurance company(I think) But anyway someone called our house and asked Greg (who just HAPPENED to be staying at our house) if he needed a tow truck. Well of course he didn't! And they asked himif he was in New Mexico.....So he called Mom and she called my cell...but guess what?????No service. Finally after several hours the tow truck found us. I am still a little confused: We found the campground with no problem and we aren't from there...HMmmm. So they came and got the truck and Don went with them back to Las Vegas to a Ford dealership. He was gone all day, but he had left a way for me to call Mom from the pay phone and we kept in touch with Mom and each other. Don got done at about 5:30. The said it was a gasket and some other stuff...$500. Okay. We were okay, with a lot of help from Mom.

We decided to stay with the original game plan and Saturday morning we packed up to head further North to what we had heard was a very pretty part of New Mexico Sugurite Campground and Raton. For about the first 40 miles it was all very narrow and hairpin turns and uphill. We didn't notice anything wrong with the truck. But then when the road leveled out, Don said the truck wasn't shifting out of second, and we couldn't go over 30 mph. When we got to the next town we decided to stop and eat and maybe let the truck cool down and see what happened. Still, it wasn't shifting. So we made the decision to turn around and go back to Las Vegas. That took us about three hours. We went straight to the dealership, and figured it was probably closed, but thought we would try anyway. It was closed, but the service manager was still there. Don talked to him and he told us that we could stay at a local RV park and they would pay for it.

It was an RVpark/ storage company. It was um, lovely. Not a tree in the place and most of the Rvs looked like they had been there a while. Saturday night we decided we wanted cookies. I had make some cookie dough up and even shaped it into litte balls, so all we would have to do would be to take them out of the freezer and put them in the oven. Of course the cookie pan I brought was too big for the oven. No problem, I thought. I will just empty all the cookie dough out of the pan they were in.....It was one of those Glad pans that are oven-proof and disposable. We put them in the oven and a little while later Don checked them and the pan was melted!! Well, Don salvaged a few cookies out of that and gave them to Andy. But we weren't going to give up that easily. Don suggested we put them on a paper plate and move the rack up. I just looked at him.....I said, "REALLY??? On this trip you feel lucky enough to do that??" He just looked at me and agreed. I said, "Why don't you just put some in the microwave." He did. He put them in there for 99 seconds. Emily said, "That's not long enough!" I just was kinda oblivious.....until the smoke just started pouring out of the microwave. I just started laughing, you know, the laugh of a person who is loosing their mind??? My daughter was running out of the trailer having an asthma attack, and I can't help her because I am doubled over with tears streaming down my face. She got her purse out of the truck and dumped it's contents on the ground looking for her inhaler. Good thing she found it, because I was blinded with tears at this point.....we'll say it's from the smoke, but I know it was from the insane laughing fit. Oh, and by the way, apparently our smoke detector doesn't work.

We stayed there Sunday and I told Don that since he was going to be gone again all day Monday that We really needed to move somewhere that would be better for the kids. SOmeplace that I didn't feel like we would have to be locked up in the trailer all day. Since we had no internet...Don's power cord to his computer failed (surprise) so we couldn't get on the internet, Mom got on her internet and found the nearest KOA. It was only about 10 miles away. We babied the truck along and thankfully made it there. It was beautiful and the people were awesome, both the campers and the staff. Since our vacation had been "extended" we needed to do laundy, and they had laundry facilities at the campground. I washed everything thoroughly, including my cell phone. To quote Andy, "This trip just gets better and better." Only he meant it and I don't.
On Monday morning, the trailer seemed kind of hot after Don left. I noticed that the air conditioner sounded funny. It wasn't blowing. Great. I turned it off and I said something about it to the owners of the KOA as I was in the store getting change for the washers. She was very kind and asked me if ai needed any fans. At that moment the only thing I could think of that I would need a fan for was to keep the flames going as I sat MYSELF on fire! LOL It turned out that it was only frozen up. About the ONLY thing on this trip that didn't cost us money.
Andy was a trouper though the whole thing. Emily, well, she was anxious about school starting and making it to Open House so she would know what class to go to on her first day of high school. Mom and Greg ended up coming up Monday night and spending the night and taking Emily Andy and I home on Tuesday. Thanks to Mom's Bat-out-of-hell driving we even made it to Open House Tuesday night.

"So, what was wrong with the truck?" you ask? Well, it needed a new transmission, of course, you Silly Billy!! Would you think it would just be a loose bolt, or something? Of course not. Don finally got home Thursday morning at 4:30. He slept for a couple of hours and went to work.
And if you are wondering why we look so happy in the picture, it is because Emily, Andy and I are getting ready to leave. LOL.

Wonder where our next trip will be?